Infighting Drags Dems Even Lower

As the Democratic National Committee is rocked by two high-level union resignations, its leadership continues to thrash around for a message and a mission.

Ya hate to see it. Just hate to see the Democrats and their various identity groups at each other’s throats like this. But in the meantime, please pass the popcorn.

Yesterday, we noted that American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten announced the end of her at-large membership in the Democratic National Committee — a membership she’d enjoyed since 2002. In her letter of resignation, she said she’s still “proud to be a Democrat” — sure, uh-huh, yeppers, absolutely — but that she’s lost faith in the party’s leadership. Weingarten had been a supporter of erstwhile DNC Vice Chair David Hogg, whom the organization recently defenestrated, and she was critical of their decision to oust him.

How did it come to this? Apparently, DNC Chair Ken Martin was about to resign his post if Hogg wasn’t removed first. “I’ll be very honest with you,” Martin said during a leaked May 15 Zoom meeting of the DNC leadership, “for the first time in my 100 days on this job … I don’t know if I wanna do this anymore.”

As Politico reports, “In the recording, an emotional Martin describes being deeply frustrated by the fallout over Hogg, who has ignited a firestorm in the party by vowing to spend $20 million in safe-blue primaries to oust incumbent Democrats he believes are ineffective. Martin paused twice while appearing to choke up.”

It got worse. Addressing Hogg directly, Martin said: “No one knows who the hell I am, right? I’m trying to get my sea legs underneath of me and actually develop any amount of credibility so I can go out there and raise the money and do the job I need to to put ourselves in a position to win. And again, I don’t think you intended this, but you essentially destroyed any chance I have to show the leadership that I need to. So it’s really frustrating.”

It was an embarrassing leak, to say the least — but leaking is precisely what organizations do when their membership is at each other’s throats. And the Democrats are at each other’s throats.

Again, ya hate to see it.

As for Weingarten, what’s remarkable about her resignation isn’t the resignation itself, or the length of her tenure as a member of the DNC. No, what’s remarkable is the unremarkable nature of this sort of sleazy nepotism on the Left. It’s what they do. But think about what an abject failure our nation’s public schools have become. Now think about who’s to blame for that failure. Our kids is getting more stupider, and the Democrats and the teachers unions to which they’re utterly beholden are to blame.

Furthermore, think about how godawful the Democrats’ brand must be that a hyperpolitical leftist hack like Weingarten is abandoning them. It’s like a trial lawyer abandoning a used car salesman.

It’s not just Weingarten, either. Lee Saunders, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the nation’s largest public-employee union, also told Martin to take his at-large membership and shove it. Ouch.

Martin is in a tough spot. Both Weingarten and Saunders seem to think he’s being too cautious, too mild-mannered, and that the DNC is out of touch with its hard-left base. Thus, after the American people delivered a devastating ballot-box rebuke to the Democrats by electing Donald Trump and awarding full congressional leadership to the Republicans, Martin has been trying to chart a middle course. But all while his wingnut base is screaming for more cowbell.

His party is revolting — in both senses — and he doesn’t know what to do about it. No wonder he’s getting all emotional.